Authoring and Installing "How Do I" Pages
"How Do I" pages consolidate Help topics about common tasks on a per technology basis.
"How Do I" pages in Visual Studio have a common appearance, but a "How Do I" page that you provide can have a unique appearance that you design. For more information about the "How Do I" pages provided in Visual Studio, see How to: Browse for Information by Subject.
Authoring How Do I Pages
Author a "How Do I" page for your technology in HTML. Normally, a "How Do I" page contains links to Help topics on the most common tasks. A "How Do I" page can be a Web page, which is available on the World Wide Web, as well as a page that is available locally on a user's computer. It is useful to provide both a local copy and a Web page copy, so users have access to the "How Do I" page when they have chosen to use local Help only.
Authoring and Installing an XML file for a How Do I Page
The first step in providing a custom "How Do I" page is to install an XML file for the new "How Do I" page. The XML file for a custom "How Do I" page must provide a title and URL of the HTML content file. The URL can also point to a location on the user's disk.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<VSHelp xmlns=
"https://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2004/08/Help/VSHelp">
<Title>MSDN How Do I</Title>
<Location>
<Url>URL that points to the topic</Url>
</Location>
</VSHelp>
In your XML file, replace "URL that points to the topic" in the above code with an actual title and location for your "How Do I" page HTML content.
Install or save your XML file in <drive>:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS Help Data\8.0\Pages\<LCID>, where <LCID> is the locale ID. Set <LCID> to 1033 for English.
XML File Name Format
The recommended format for the XML file name is:
[Product]HowDoI[MajorVersion][MinorVersion]
For example, the XML file for the "How Do I" page for version 1.0 of Litware Editor might be named LitwareEditorHowDoI10.xml.
Once you have added a custom "How Do I" page, it appears in the How Do I drop-down on the Standard toolbar of the Microsoft Document Explorer.
Registering a How Do I Page
Each application ID in Visual Studio can specify which "How Do I" pages are visible from its user interface (UI).
To display all available (including the pages provided by Visual Studio) "How Do I" pages in your application, create the following registry entry (a Boolean DWORD):
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\[AppId]\8.0\Help\UseAllPages.
If this key exists and its value is non-zero, then every "How Do I" page installed in <drive>:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VS Help Data\8.0\Pages\<LCID> is visible.
If the value for HKLM\Software\Microsoft\[AppId]\8.0\Help\UseAllPages is 0 (zero), then the following registration key value is examined:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\[Appid]\8.0\Help\VisiblePages.
Each value therein is a DWORD that specifies whether a given page is visible. Any page that is not listed in this key is not visible. For example, Visual C# Express Edition could have the following values:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\CSharpExpress\8.0\Help\UseAllPages = d 0
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\CSharpExpress\8.0\Help\VisiblePages\CSharpExpressHowDoI = d 1
The effect of the above is that the only visible "How Do I" page in the Visual C# Express Edition application is the one listed in CSharpExpressHowDoI.xml.
Note
Each of the above listed registry keys can appear in HKCU instead of HKLM. If they do, they override the HKLM value.
Once you have added a custom "How Do I" page, it appears in the How Do I drop-down on the Standard toolbar of the Microsoft Document Explorer.